Trouble in Paradise

I have been dealing with one mishap after another. Came home from my
Vacation and had to get my networking fix, in the process of trying to get
the networking up and running my hard drive crash. Had to get a new hard drive,
I had most of my files saved thankfully but stuff I was working on that I didn’t
back up for a couple of months was lost. It was a little stressful
trying to get all my files back on the new hard drive. All is well now
with that issue. Now comes the issue with my website. I know my
subscription with my server was about to expire and now that my son is
working he doesn’t have the time to help me out as before. He work
long hours during the week and most weekends he has to work also. So i
thought I would wait for my domain name to expire and sign up with
another server. What I didn’t know and learned the hard way was that
even though the domain name expires there is still a waiting period
before the domain name is once again available to another server. I
thought about renewing my subscription with the same server but I had
to wait until my son came home last night to discuss it with him. He
came home very late and suggested I wait for the domain name to be
available, he also suggested I used tripod and build my website and
upload it temporarily until I can register my domain name. I tried to
build the website last night and publish it to the web. For the time
being hopefully a week maybe two my website URL will be:
http://ferosah.tripod.com/
I am praying that things run smoothly now. I think I need another
vacation lol.
Hugs
Ferosa

Update on me

Just little note to let ou know that Life is stilll a little disorganised. My daily schedule is: I get up on mornings, eat breakfast and take my medications. I take my diabetes tablets and my doctor also have me on Rivotril which is supposed to make me relax and sleep. So when my husband and son leaves for work each morning i have to get back into bed when the tabs starts to take effect. I get up around lunch time and start cooking. I then check emails with the time it's very hard to send in replies for which I aoplogise, I think of you all everyday and hope that one day soon Iwill be able to return to a normal daily routine. Till then I hope you all will put up with my tariness. I thank all those who is helping me to keep my spirits alive . I placed pics of the two afghans so everyone can see them.I am slowly getting back into the designing and I am working on a new designs, its comming along nicely but very slowly as there is limited time to work on it. My eyes gets tired fast as it's a painted designs. I hope you all are in good health and crocheting to you hearts content. I wish everyone a very productive day.
HugsFerosa

Self-Publishing an Adventure

Last Year I decided to self publish my designs. It's an interesting story that lead me to Self publishing. I submitted a set of Cro Tat doilies but the designs were rejected by the publishing house that first reintroduced the technique. I was told that they were no longer going to publish designs for that technique. So I submitted it to another publisher and got rejected because it was a technique introduced by another publishing house and they didn't want to step on any one's toes as far as the technique was concerned. While I understood the whole concept I was left with the designs sitting in a drawer begging to be published. As time went by I decided to submit it as single designs for magazines. So I went ahead and submitted them to an editor of a crochet magazine but never got a response on whether they wanted them for publications. In 2005 I was instrumental in reintroducing the Cro Tat Technique for DRG Publishing but once designs are rejected you cannot resubmit it for publication. After 4 years of submitting and getting no positive feedback I had the brilliant idea of self publishing the designs as a book.

I had to do a lot of research on how to go about publishing this book. This is what I found I had to do to achieve that goal.
1. Register my business
2. Find Printer and get quotation on cost of Printing.
3. Get financing for project
4. Register with ISBN Office
5. Purchase ISBN #
6. Enlist crocheters for Pattern testing
7. Editing and formatting designs for book
8. Take pictures of Designs for book
9. Get Graphic Designer for book cover layout

10.Get Files to printer for printing

This process took 8 months to complete but I stuck with it and published my first book in October 2006.

"Shimmering Doilies and Coasters"

Click Here to Purchase a copy of my book

Now Publishing the book is only the beginning. Advertising is the key to sales, I am researching different ways to promote the book. Wish me luck in this new venture.

How I became a Published Designer

Hi I'm Ferosa Harold Crochet Designer, designing professionally for the past 7 years. I taught myself to crochet at the age of 16. I started of making doilies to give as gifts to friends and family. Eventually as other people started seeing my work they wanted doilies too for their home and for gifts I began taking on commissioned work . My crochet book collection consisted of mainly Ondori and Nighon Vogue. In the 80's and 90's those were the only type of crochet books available here in Trinidad.

My introduction into learning how to adjust stitches came about when one customer wanted a combination of two doilies made into one. Mind you I didn't know how I was going to accomplish this but I said yes I can do it, and lo and behold I did it. Pretty soon I was trying my hands at designing and the finished pieces was always snatched up whenever I showed it as a new doily for sale. The sad part of that is I never wrote down the instructions because never in my wildest dreams I thought I would be good enough to get my work published. My story on how I got my first book published is very interesting.

In 1998 I lost my job and decided I wanted to be self employed. I would do commissioned work and teach people to crochet in my spare time. Commissioned work was slow and not many people was interested in lessons for crochet. My Father in Law who lives in Canada came home for a visit and he bought me a crochet magazine as he knew I love to crochet. In the magazine was an AD for the crochet guild of America and I contacted them about places to buy crochet books. I was suprised when I recieved a package in the mail with a whole listing of places in the USA to buy crochet books. I also became a member of the Crochet Guild of America. I contacted Annie's Attic to get information on buying from them. A very helpful customer service rep named Tori Currington called me with the information I needed. I asked her if Annie's Attic published their own crochet books and she said yes. So I questioned her some more about how to go about submitting designs to them. She was so patient and helpful, she told me to write a letter requesting the designer guidelines and fax it to her and she will pass it on to the relevant department. I faxed the letter and waited for a while, I didn't get any response so I thought "oh well" another avenue in crochet that wasn't to be. Then one day the phone rang and to my suprise it was Darla Hassell from Annie's Attic design department wanting to know if my mailing information is the same because she had a package with the designer guideline to send to me.

She was very helpful also told me exactly what to do to submit my book to the design acquisiton manager Ms. Deborah Hamburg.

Mind you I didn't have a computer and internet service at that time. My sister in law helped me to email the relevant information to Ms. Hamburg. I got my cousin to take pics of the designs and emailed it to Ms. Hamburg. I was overjoyed when I recieved a reply from her saying she was very interested in my work and to submit the designs for publication.

I borrowed a friend's typewriter to do the instructions for the book and my sister in law retyped it when I was done so that it looked a little more professional. I cannot tell you how many pages I spoiled because I couldn't type to save my life. I was on a learning curve in a lot of areas.
Learning to type, learning about computers and the internet, learning how to write pattern instructions etc! etc! etc! But I survived and learned and became a published Designer. My first checque from designing I used to purchase a computer and sign up for internet access.
My first Published book "Irish Lace Doilies" Published in 2001, it has since been discontinued but from time to time you will find a copy on ebay.